On October 29, 2024, officers of Kenya’s National Police Service and inspectors from the Kenya Copyright Board (KECOBO) dismantled a major hub of unauthorized sports streaming in Makadara Soubcounty, Nairobi County.
score808.us had more than 21,000 users in Kenya and nearly 28 million unique worldwide visitors over the past year (Oct 2023 through Sept 2024). 8.85 million of those unique worldwide visitors – about a third of them – were from within Kenya. South African and Nigerian visitors accounted for approximately 1.62 million and 1.15 million respectively.
Collaborative strategy
Takedown of score808.us represents another win in an ongoing anti-piracy campaign against illegal streaming sites by South Africa-based MultiChoice Group, whose strategy is to collaborate with local and national law enforcement authorities and with governmental agencies in the fight. MultiChoice also collaborated with Nigerian law enforcement to take down score808.com.ng in that country, in September 2024.
In addition to MultiChoice-owned SuperSport programming, matches of the English Premier League, Italy’s Serie A, Sky Sport and Spain’s La Liga were also illegally re-distributed by the score808.us site.
Property seizure
“The raid targeted identified pirate responsible for developing and hosting a pirate website that offered unauthorized access to premier content by utilizing Sky Sports and SuperSport chan,” said KECOBO in an Instagram post.
The site’s backend database was seized, and the platform was taken offline. Additionally, the suspect’s mobile phone and laptop, used to manage the site, went into Police custody for further forensic analysis by the Police Cyber Crime team.
However, the score808.us site was again active at the time of this article (early November, 2024) which may mean that a backup of the site had been implemented elsewhere. This had also been the case with the score808.com.ng site in Nigeria, which had evaded shutdown by moving.
Further arrests
Authorities confirm that additional arrests are anticipated as the investigation progresses. “This is part of our ongoing strategy to address piracy in all its forms across the African continent,” said Frikkie Jonker, head of anti-piracy and cybersecurity for the Irdeto unit of MultiChoice Group.
Mr. George Nyakweba, Acting Executive Director of the Kenya Copyright Board (KECOBO) said: “We fully support all rights holders in protecting their intellectual property. It is KECOBO’s mandate to assist rights holders in safeguarding their rights in Kenya. Such raids are crucial in preserving the integrity of the works of the creatives.”
Further reading
Successful raid on pirate streaming site ‘score808.us’ in Kenya. News release. October 31, 2024. MultiChoice Group (South Africa)
Nigeria: Major piracy site taken down despite attempts to evade detection by changing locations. Article. by Steven Hawley. September 4, 2024. Piracy Monitor
Why it matters
The deactivation of “score808.US” marks a significant step in protecting legitimate revenues, sustaining jobs, and strengthening Kenya’s creative industry by reducing piracy’s detrimental effects on stakeholders across the industry, said MultiChoice Group in a prepared statement.
Website piracy not only deprives content owners of legitimate revenue but also undermines Government efforts to generate tax revenue essential for public services and infrastructure.
These unauthorized platforms divert substantial financial resources away from both the government and the creative industry, leading to significant economic losses and stifling the growth of legitimate content production, said MultiChoice.
